Breadcrumb

James Dale Takes on the Boy Scouts of American Interview

Unheard Voices: Stories of LGBT History

For Educators

ADL, GLSEN and StoryCorps collaborated to create Unheard Voices, an oral history and curriculum project that will help educators to integrate LGBT history, people and issues into their instructional programs.

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America could refuse membership to people who identify as gay. It was a ten-year court battle.

The plaintiff in the case was James Dale who began scouting when he was eight years old. By the time he entered Rutgers University, he had achieved the rank Assistant Scout Master as an adult. At Storycorps, Dale remembers how he ended up as a lightning rod for gay rights in the United States.